The head of the World Health Organisation issued a tacit threat to President Trump Wednesday, after the latter threatened to withhold funding for the organisation owing to its slow response to the coronavirus spread, and what Trump described as a ‘China-centric’ outlook.
Trump tweeted Tuesday that the WHO ‘really blew it’ when it came to the virus:
The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2020
In his Wednesday press briefing, Trump followed up, stating ‘The WHO got it wrong, they got up very wrong. In many ways they were wrong. They also minimized the threat very strongly,”
Trump pointed to the WHO’s January announcement that there was no human-to-human transmission of the deadly disease:
Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China🇨🇳. pic.twitter.com/Fnl5P877VG
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 14, 2020
He also blasted WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu, calling him one of China’s ‘proxies’.
Adhanom hit back at Trump, saying “At the end of the day, the people belong to all political parties. The focus of all political parties should be to save their people, please do not politicize this virus.”
“If you want to be exploited and if you want to have many more body bags, then you do it. If you don’t want many more body bags, then you refrain from politicizing it.” Adhanom added, much to the disgust of many on a day when almost 2000 Americans died from the virus.
.@WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesuson attacks Trump for noting the org bends over backwards to protect China: “Stop pointing fingers” unless you “want more body bags … it’s like playing with fire” pic.twitter.com/mTwFPqpBdE
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) April 8, 2020
“My short message is please quarantine politicizing COVID – the unity of your country will be very important to defeat this dangerous virus. Without unity we assure you even any country that may have a better system will be in more trouble. That’s our message,” the WHO chief continued.
He repeated the body bag threat, stating “We will have many body bags in front of us if we don’t behave,” adding, “When there are cracks at [the] national level and global level, that is when the virus succeeds.”
Tump responded, asserting “So when he says politicizing he’s politicizing, and he shouldn’t be.”
“I can’t believe he’s talking about politics when look at the relationship they have to China,” Trump added.
As we have previously highlighted, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has repeatedly parroted Chinese Communist Party talking points, constantly heaping praise on Beijing’s response to coronavirus, despite the fact that China hid the truth about its spread and viciously silenced scientists and doctors who tried to warn the world.
Adhanom is a former member of a violent revolutionary communist party in Ethiopia that denied emergency medical treatment to an ethnic group and he is accused of personally overseeing the extradition of dissidents who were later imprisoned and tortured.
As Tucker Carlson highlighted earlier this week, Adhanom “got his job with Chinese support after he covered up cholera outbreaks in his home country” of Egypt.
Adhanom has denied the allegation, which centered around claims he had downplayed cholera epidemics in Ethiopia in 2006, 2009 and 2011 by passing them off as “acute watery diarrhea,” a symptom of cholera.
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